Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 17:24:15 -0800 (PST)
From: Author James
Subject: The Shadow Chapter 6 That's What Friends Are For
Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. I do not know the sexual
orientation of any of the celebrities who will be appearing in the story.
WARNING: The character does not have a happy life and will not have very
many happy events in his life. If this kind of stuff bothers you, I do not
recommend reading. Otherwise, enjoy.
The Shadow created by Street and Smith, Walter B. Gibson. Copyright
Advance Magazine Publishing Inc.
Author's email address: authorjames2002@yahoo.com
Chapter 6 That's What Friends Are For
The bullets stopped and several men in tuxedos jumped through the
busted glass and open door. The two masked heroes went into action as
well. The Shadow blocked a punch and retaliated, punching a man in the
face. Nightwing grabbed a guy's wrist in mid-punch, spun underneath the
man, and flipped him to the ground. Then, Nightwing kicked the guy in the
face knocking him out.
Two guys grabbed the Shadow's arms and held them back while another
punched him in the face. He punched the Shadow again. Then he reached
inside his coat and pulled out a gun. The Shadow swung his legs upward.
One foot connected with the gun knocking it out of the attacker's hand.
The Shadow flipped over the guys and their grips loosened on his arms. The
youth slipped his right hand free, which he used to back-hand the one who
had held it. Then he brought his fist over and punched the guy still
holding fast to his left hand. The two men stumbled backwards clutching at
their noses. The Shadow swung his leg up and connected with the genitals
of one. The man fell over in pain. The youth turned and did the same to
the other, who also fell to the ground.
The man who had the gun pulled a knife and was ready to throw it at
the Shadow when a blue bird-shaped object flew through the air and hit the
man's hand. The man dropped the knife and a blue and black gloved fist hit
the man in the back of the neck, rendering him unconscious.
"Thanks for the help," the Shadow said.
"You're welcome. You'll have to show me some of those moves. Now
let's check on our friends."
The Shadow nodded and the two went inside.
"Arsenal!" Nightwing called out.
"Harris!" the Shadow called out.
They heard the creak of a door in the back and the two snuck back
in case it wasn't their friends. Nightwing approached the corner and a
hand grasped him on the shoulder. With a quick, fluid motion, he flipped
the person onto his back and placed his foot against the person's throat.
"Arsenal!" he said realizing who it was. "Sorry about that." He
released his grip and helped him up. "What were you doing in the closet?
Aren't you supposed to be out of it?"
"Ha, ha," Arsenal said in sarcasm. "We heard someone come down
from upstairs. We hid back here hoping to get a jump on them when we saw
the guys. I'm not bulletproof and neither is the kid."
"Kid? I'm almost as old as you two! I don't need this patronizing
shit! Not from you!"
Everyone turned to Harris surprised at the passion behind his
words.
"Is something bothering you?" Nightwing asked.
"Nothing I want to talk about."
The Shadow chose to ignore what was going on and examine the
situation at hand. "I was on my way here to get some information from
Jared about the A-Teens. He was looking into something concerning strange
occurrences surrounding the two males. The same guys who killed are
dressed the same as men I've seen at the youths' suite at a downtown hotel.
These men obviously knew Jared was working for me and so killed him. Jared
may have gotten close to what is going on and their boss, whoever that may
be, decided Jared was a liability."
The Shadow turned to see the guys staring at him. "Is there a
problem?"
"You know the A-Teens?" Arsenal asked.
"Not on a personal basis, but I have met them. I'm investigating
what happened."
"What did happen?" Nightwing asked.
"They had sex with one another."
"That doesn't seem so strange."
"They were videotaped by someone who also wanted the condoms filled
with their cum. That tells me there is some issue about their genetic code
being factored in. My question is who wants it and why?"
"Well the why is obvious, someone wants to reproduce."
"Or someone wants to clone Dhani and Amit."
"You can't get all of their DNA out of their semen," Harris stated.
"Male semen only carries half of the chromosomes and DNA for reproduction."
"True, but in semen there are millions of sperm cells which carry
the DNA. All of a male's DNA is represented in an infinite number of
combinations equally half of what is needed for life. If someone were a
geneticist, they could very well be able to create the DNA sequence of both
men and, thusly, recreate them."
"Or combine them to make one really hot guy."
The three masked heroes looked at Harris.
"Well it's true. Can you imagine a guy that looked like both of
those two? Man, that's getting me hot and bothered already."
"We can stand here and do all the speculation we want. Until we
analyze what's on Jared's hard drives, we won't know anything for certain."
The Shadow pulled out his cell phone and called Moe. He requested Moe to
come to the apartment complex. "Moe's on his way," the Shadow said after
hanging up. "Let's get his computers and bring down here."
The four young men went inside and gathered all the electrical
equipment and brought it out as the taxi cab pulled up. Moe pulled up in
his cab. "I got your call," he said to the Shadow. "Who are these guys?"
The Shadow didn't answer and the group piled into the cab after
putting Jared's computers into the trunk.
"I'm Harris," Harris introduced.
"I'm Nightwing and this is Arsenal."
"How you doing?" Arsenal said to Moe.
Moe just nodded. Then asked, "Where to, boss?" They loaded the
hardware into the trunk and the Shadow ordered Moe to take them to an
abandoned building near the gymnasium. It was the same building the Shadow
lived in before he met Jonesy.
Once at the building, the Shadow, Nightwing, Arsenal, and Harris
unloaded the computers. He led them around back into the building. "This
should do," the Shadow replied. "We can set up the lair here. Do you have
Jared's computers?"
"I don't feel right using his stuff," Harris said. "We kind of
stole it."
"He used those computers for me and my work. Technically, they are
mine."
Nightwing and Arsenal looked at each other and rolled their eyes.
They didn't know exactly what kind of arrangements the Shadow had made with
Jared so they didn't interfere.
"Go ahead and set up. I want to see what you can do," and the
Shadow left.
"So, how did you two meet?" Harris asked Nightwing as he began
connecting the machines together.
"We met a few months ago in Orlando during the Vamp..." He looked at
Harris, not sure if Harris would think he was crazy.
"Vampire War?" Harris completed. "I know about it. I was involved
with some people that dressed like you guys. Only these people fought
vampires."
"Really?" Nightwing replied. "I did for a while with some people
down in Orlando. It ended up getting my girlfriend killed. During the
Vampire War, I met Arsenal. We hit it off great and he suggested we head
up this way. There was enough regular crime to deal with out here and
enough strangely powered beings that could handle the supernatural.
"My name is Robert, by the way. Some people have called me Robbie
or Rob. Arsenal's real name is Roy."
Harris smiled, feeling grateful that these costumed heroes were
willing to share their identity. Well, that Nightwing was willing to share
their identities. He wondered if Arsenal would be so trusting.
"You know, you look familiar to me. Have I seen you somewhere
before?"
Realization dawned on both of the young heroes.
"Your group came to Columbus during the Vampire War," Harris
replied. "You work with Batgirl."
"I did work with Batgirl."
"You don't work with her any more." It was a statement more of a
question.
"Not since we came here. I figured they had enough help down in
Orlando to fight the demons. I'm only human. I don't have special powers
or special skills to fight them."
"I'm only human, too," Harris stated. "But look at me. I've been
helping them for a long time."
"But you have some special skills. You know how to use this
stuff."
"You know how to fight."
"There are plenty of fighters in Orlando. Just as I'm sure there
are plenty of fighters in your team. It seemed like it when we were
there."
Harris nodded. "There are a lot of fighters in Columbus."
"But how many of them can use computers like you?"
"I don't think any of them, really. Whistler knows some about
technology, but most of that is for designing weapons."
"Sounds to me like you have an important job with your friends,
your family. Maybe you should contact them to let them know you are safe.
I'm sure they are worried about you."
"Maybe," Harris answered.
The Shadow entered the room and looked from Nightwing to Harris.
"Did I interrupt something?"
"No," Nightwing answered.
"What do you want me to do?" Harris asked.
"I want you to do a search on the A-Teens. I want background
information on them. Where they come from? Do they have any shady contacts
with anybody? Find out anything and everything you can about the group."
Harris nodded. He typed in a few parameters in a search engine and
came up with several thousand websites. He clicked the first one. "This
might be something," he said. On the site was a link that said, "Secrets
of the A-Teens".
"I highly doubt anything about them would be so blatant."
Harris clicked on the link as curiosity got the better of them.
"Hello!" he said as the images loaded up.
"What?" Nightwing asked looking over Harris's shoulder.
On the screen were several pictures of the group, all nude
pictures. It was obvious someone with some computer intelligence imposed
the heads over the bodies. Still, the thought of seeing the guys naked in
any way stimulated Harris, Arsenal and Nightwing.
"That isn't them," the Shadow said. "I've seen the guys naked, as
I told you before. Dhani is longer than that and Amit is much thicker.
Both keep their pubes trimmed, as well. Move along."
The three men who stared at the pictures turned to the Shadow and
stared at him.
"Move along," the Shadow replied.
Harris cleared his throat and went back to his computer work.
"I'm going to check on them."
"Do you want us to come with you?" Arsenal asked.
"No."
After the Shadow left, Arsenal turned to Nightwing. "Do you
believe that guy? He's a real piece of work."
"He saved my life," Harris said as he ran a search on Jared's
computer for anything related to the A-Teens. "And he's a mutant."
"What?" both young men said turning to Harris.
"Yeah, he's a mutant. And he didn't know he was until I pointed it
out."
"What are you talking about?" Nightwing said as he moved toward
Harris. "How can a mutant not know he's a mutant?"
"His power is invisibility, it seems like. He came right out of
the shadows as if he were part of them. I don't think he ever realized it
before. It's kind of hard if you aren't around mirrors when you do your
mutant thing."
"I used to work with a mutant," Nightwing said. "He was pretty
cool."
"How do you know about mutants?" Arsenal asked Harris.
"Oh, look," Harris said changing the subject. He didn't want to go
to any part of his past at the moment. "Jared found some interesting
tidbits on the A-Teens."
Nightwing looked over Harris's shoulder. "What's that word?
'Ipanema'? I've never heard of that word before."
"I'll run a search on it and see what the Internet has."
"Good thinking. I'm itching for some constructive violence. Are
you up for it, Arsenal?"
"You better believe it."
"Can I come?" Harris asked.
"Do you know how to fight?"
"I want to learn, remember? How can I learn if I don't experience
it?"
"Don't you have a search thing to do on the computer?"
"It hardly needs me here to do a search."
"I think it's too dangerous," Nightwing finally said. "At least
for right now. You have no training whatsoever. Once we train you in some
ways, I would be happy to have you come along. But until then..."
"Whatever," Harris said solemnly. He turned and sat down.
"Listen, I don't want you to be mad..." Nightwing began.
"Just go."
Taking a deep breath, Nightwing and Arsenal left the lair leaving
Harris alone to his work.
To Be Continued...